U-Haul’s 2026 migration data shows Angelenos moving to Las Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle, Portland and Denver while younger movers are also choosing destinations inside California.
Every day, U-Haul trucks move through Los Angeles carrying furniture, boxes, appliances and the belongings of people beginning a new chapter somewhere else.
For U-Haul, those moves create something few other companies can see: a real-time picture of where people are actually going. Its one-way rental data shows where customers are leaving Los Angeles, where they are coming from, and how those patterns differ across generations.
As California continues to experience significant domestic out-migration, U-Haul’s data offers a different way to look at the movement of people across Los Angeles and the rest of the country.
And the picture is more complicated than a simple exodus.
U-Haul’s view from the road
U-Haul’s annual Growth Index analyzes millions of one-way truck and trailer transactions. In 2025, the company analyzed more than 2.5 million one-way moves in the United States and Canada to determine which states were gaining and losing the most do-it-yourself movers.
California ranked 50th, recording the greatest net loss of one-way U-Haul customers for the sixth consecutive year.
But U-Haul’s metropolitan data offers a more detailed picture of what is happening around Los Angeles.
In its 2025 midyear migration report, the company identified Las Vegas, Phoenix, Seattle, Portland and Denver as the leading out-of-state origins for customers moving into the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Within California, the leading origins for people moving to Los Angeles included Riverside, the Bay Area, San Diego, Sacramento and Bakersfield.
In other words, U-Haul is seeing movement in both directions.
A moving network across Los Angeles
That movement takes place through U-Haul’s extensive network of locations throughout the region, including facilities serving East Los Angeles, Downtown, South Los Angeles, Crenshaw, Hollywood and other communities.
The company has also continued to expand its network in Los Angeles County. In 2024, U-Haul announced that a Torrance business had joined its dealer network, expanding access to moving equipment and services in the county.
Those locations are more than places where customers pick up trucks.
Together, they form part of a national system that allows U-Haul to track one-way movements between cities and states.
That makes the company an unusual source of migration data.
What U-Haul sees that population statistics don’t
Government population estimates tell us how many people live in a place.
U-Haul’s data tells us something different: where people renting moving equipment are going.
Someone can leave Los Angeles for Riverside without leaving California. Another person can move from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Someone else can arrive in Los Angeles from Phoenix.
All three moves affect U-Haul’s network, but they represent very different decisions. The company’s 2026 midyear report breaks those movements down by generation.
Among Baby Boomers leaving the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon and Utah were the leading destination states outside California.
For Gen X, the leading destinations included Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas and Washington.
For Millennials, the leading states outside California were Texas, Oregon, Tennessee, Colorado and Utah.
Among Gen Z, the leading destinations included Texas, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona.
Not everyone is leaving California
Some of the most interesting destinations for younger Angelenos remain inside California.
U-Haul’s data shows the San Francisco Bay Area, Bakersfield, Sacramento, Riverside and Fresno among destinations appearing prominently in the migration patterns of younger generations.
That matters because the California migration story is often framed as a choice between staying in Los Angeles and leaving the state.
U-Haul’s numbers suggest the decision can be more complicated.
For some households, the next move may be another California city. For others, the destination is Las Vegas, Phoenix, Texas or the Pacific Northwest.
And for others, the direction is reversed: they are moving into Los Angeles.
A business built around movement
There is another reason U-Haul is an interesting lens for understanding Los Angeles: movement is its business.
Unlike a government agency conducting a population survey, U-Haul has a commercial reason to understand where people are moving. Its fleet has to be positioned where customers need trucks, while equipment and vehicles have to be relocated throughout its network.
Every one-way rental becomes part of that logistical system.
That data has also become useful to researchers and journalists trying to understand migration patterns.
U-Haul cautions that its Growth Index is not a scientific population study. It measures the movement of its customers, who represent only one segment of people who move.
Still, the volume is significant: more than 2.5 million one-way transactions were analyzed for the company’s 2025 Growth Index.
What the trucks cannot tell us
A U-Haul rental cannot explain why someone moved.
The data does not tell us whether a customer left Los Angeles because of housing costs, a new job, retirement, taxes, family circumstances or a desire for a different lifestyle.
It also does not capture people who hire professional movers, use their own vehicles or move without a rental truck.
U-Haul, therefore, should not replace Census data.
Its value is in providing another perspective. The Census tells us how the population is changing. U-Haul provides a glimpse of how people are moving through the country. And Los Angeles is one of the most interesting places to watch that movement.
A city with trucks going both ways
Look closely at the U-Haul numbers and the image of a one-way Los Angeles exodus begins to break down.
There are trucks leaving for Las Vegas and Phoenix.
There are trucks arriving from Las Vegas and Phoenix.
There are Angelenos moving to other parts of California.
And there are Californians moving toward Los Angeles.
The destinations also change depending on the generation behind the move.
That makes U-Haul more than a moving company in this story. Its network provides a moving map of America, with Los Angeles as one of its most revealing points.
